Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Beginnings of a diorama ... and more Kingdom Death

To this day, a visit to a model shop when I was just a wee little boy of five remains burned vividly into my memory. In that shop were many beautiful miniature dioramas depicting various World War II scenes involving beautifully painted tanks, soldiers and scenery. I was in awe and wished fervently that I had an iota of the skill shown by the painters. Well more than three decades later, I am giving it a go ... finally ... and sincerely hope I can do the wonderfully sculpted miniatures justice.

Mary and her little 'lamb'
Pic from a slightly different angle
Hot dragon breath ...

It is still at the 'conceptual' stage in that I am not too sure who I want to use as the protagonist in the diorama. The antagonist will be the dragon miniature from Games Workshop's Lord of the Ring series while the protagonist, for now at least, is the Kingdom Death Pinup Saviour miniature.

Pinup Saviour (Front View) minus the cloak
Pinup Saviour (Back View) minus the cloak

I have a few other candidates in mind, one of which is in my latest order from Kingdom death.

Yet more miniatures from Kingdom Death
I just couldn't resist it when I saw the limited release models on sale at Kingdom Death. Two particular miniatures grabbed my attention instantly. One was the 'Illuminated Lady' which I thought would make a wonderful Object Source Lighting painting project while the other one was the 'Beyond the Wall Mini Diorama' which would make an excellent piece to incorporate into future dioramas. A third - the Pinup Architect - was an impulse buy as I really liked the overall look of the figure.



Kingdom Death's Illuminated Lady will be an excellent choice for an Object Source Lighting (OSL) piece

Kingdom Death Beyond the Wall - An alternative candidate for the diorama's protagonist

Kingdom Death Pinup Architect ... possibly the coolest architect since Ted Mosby?
Head is missing the left horn ...
Practise run for painting a female figure
As I have never painted a miniature which so much flesh showing before, I had best practise before I start on the diorama. Looking over my current collection, the only miniature that came close to the Kingdom Death girls were Lelith Hesperax. I plan to try a colour scheme that is completely different from the one done up by the 'Eavy Metal team. Looking to do a more 'softer' look and should have some pictures ... warts and all ... of my progress with Lelith over the coming weeks.

Lelith is ready for priming.

Friday, 24 August 2012

Rough Guide to Painting a Bad Moonz Ork Deffkopta

Finished painting my first ever Warhammer 40K vehicle, and I guess it was inevitable that it had to be an Ork Deffkopta. For some reason, it seemed less intimidating than the Chaos Rhino that I was planning to paint. There are still two more deffkoptas left to paint so the job's only partly done.  

Dakka, dakka, dakka ...
Added some black flames on the side to make the deffkopta look more menacing
More black flames ... this time on the opposing side
Rear view of the Ork Deffkopta
One down, two to go.

Rough Guide to Painting a Bad Moonz Ork Deffkopta

Step 1: Basecoat with Chaos Black.


 Step 2: Basecoat selected armour panels with Taucept Ocre.


Step 3: Basecoat the metal parts with a combination of Boltgun Metal, Tin Bitz, a 1:1 mix of Boltgun Metal:Chardonite Granite and a 1:1 mix of Boltgun Metal:Chaos Black. Meanwhile, Khemri Brown/Citadel Brown was used for the cloth/leather wrappings, and Mordian Blue, Orkshide Shade and Mechrite Red was used for the various wirings found on the vehicle.


Step 4: Basecoat the ork pilot's skin with Orkhide Shade, Ork teeth/Leather Pilot Headgear/Gloves/Pants (Scorched Brown), Waist Cloak/Goggle Lens (Astronomican Grey), Goggle Straps/Arm Scarf (Calthan Borwn) and Fur lining pilot's flight jacket (Khemri Borwn).


Step 5: Vehicle was given a wash of Badab Black (for the metal parts) and Devlan Mud (for the Ork Pilot and all the other non-metal parts). I actually also washed the yellow armoured panels with Devlan Mud but on hindsight, I should have left it alone till later.


Step 6: Application of the Midtones and Highlights completed the paint job.
 
Yellow Armoured Panels - A midtone layer of 1:1 Iyanden Darksun:Golden Yellow mix was followed by a highlight of 1:1 Golden Yellow:Skull White mix.A wash of Gryphonne Sepia was applied to the panels' recesses as well as the black flame markings.
 
Ork Skin - This time round, I decided to paint a brighter skin tone and went with the traditional Games Workshop style of Knarloc Green followed by Goblin Green (Midtones) and always leaving the darker layer showing a little bit at each step. Finally a 1:1 Goblin Green:Bleach Bone mix was used for the skin highlights. A wash of Thraka Green was applied right at the end.
 
Waist Cloak - For the cloak around the Ork pilot's waist, a midtone layer of Scab Red was applied followed by a wash of Devlan Mud and Badab Black. Then, a layer of Red Gore was applied while taking care not to obscure the shadows created by the wash and also part of the Scab Red layer. Finally a highlight comprising a 1:1 mix of Blood Red and Blazing Orange was applied. For some contrast, the inner layer of the coat which had been basecoated with Astronomican Grey was painted with a midtone of Skull White and washed with Badab Black and Devlan Mud to 'dirty it up'.                               



Metal Parts - Parts basecoated earlier with Tin Bitz were painted with a midtone layer comprising either just Dwarf Bronze or a 1:1 mix of Tin Biz:Dwarf Bronze. A wash of Gryphonne Sepia was applied to finish off the bronze-looking parts. For the rest, a highlight of Mithril Silver was used.
            
Ork pilot hat, gloves and pants - No midtones was used. They were just highlighted using a 1:1 mix of Scorched Brown:Bestial Brown.
 
Ork teeth - A simple midtone layer of Bleached Bone was followed by a wash of Devlan Mud. 

Fur lining on the flight jacket, leather bindings on the vehicle - A midtone of Kommando Khaki was applied followed by a wash of Devlan Mud. No highlights were used, though they can be added for a more detailed paint job.

Well that's about it for a rough how-to on painting an Ork Deffkopta. It forms a basis on which to build on as further highlights can certainly improve the vehicle's look. But it is, however, a reasonably quick way to paint one, all things considered.

Saturday, 18 August 2012

Kingdom Death Miniatures

After seeing the miniatures for the first time on a fellow hobbyist's blog and later checking them out in detail at the original website, I knew I had to get my hands on some Kingdom Death miniatures.

A truly awesome set
Ordered two miniatures - the Pinup Savior (Morgan) and Pinup Survivor - and they duly arrived in a carefully packaged box that protected both miniatures well. There were some issues with the Pinup Savior (details on the bottom right corner of the cloak were not clearly seen and the left foot seems to have broken off), but I was still happy with the overall package I got from Kingdom Death.

Pinup Survivor
Pinup Savior

Can't wait to get started on the cool Kingdom Death miniatures.  

Bad Moonz Ork Deffkopta
On the Warhammer 40K front, things have slowed down a bit as I have been too busy with work to get much painting done. Only managed to get some basecoats on an Ork Deffkopta.

Slow progress on a Bad Moonz Deffkopta
Hope I can get more done up over the short 4-day holiday period.

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Ork Nobz (AOBR) Completed

Finally ... the Ork Nobz from the Assault on Black Reach (AOBR) set is done. I am slowly getting better at painting Orks, so hopefully the paint job on my upcoming second squad of Ork Nobz (non-AOBR) will be an improvement from these guys below.

Definitely not the Famous Five that Enid Blyton envisioned!
We are green and mean ...
Three's a company
Ork Nobz clashing with Ultramarine Terminators





Fixing my mistakes
Miniatures from the AOBR set are easier to assemble than the normal miniatures. But unfortunately for me, I accidentally broke the plastic bit on the head that connected to the body. Result being the surfaces between the body and head became too uneven to glue together. Thankfully, it's nothing a drill and a simple paper clip couldn't solve though.





Practising freehand designs
Based on the rough design on the shoulder pad below, it will take a lot more practise before I can paint/draw good freehand designs. Any advice for a "free-hand" noob would be welcome. Hopefully it's not a "you either have it or you don't" kind of skill.

Black flames were a bit rough on the edges
Getting more confident painting the checkered design

Finally I leave you with a picture that was painful in so many ways ...


Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Orks, orks and more orks

Remember the famous line from Haley Joel Osment in the movie Sixth Sense, “I see dead people”.
Well, I see orks everywhere on my workstation, in different stages of completion – some are partially-painted, most semi-assembled, the majority have only been undercoated black and yet more of them are still just in their boxes.

Over the past few weeks, I did however manage to get one measly Ork Nobz from the Assault on Black Reach set done up. The many details of an ork miniature kinda slows down my paint speed. Delightful to paint but extremely time consuming to get done. Took some pictures of it with a Canon EOS 650D + Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Lens.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Still getting to grips with the camera so photos should get better over time. Currently I am just snapping away using the macro function with manual focus without bothering too much with the apreture and ISO settings. As coincidence would have it, my camera phone sort of went “kaput” within days of me getting access to the DSLR and macro lens. For some reason, the camera phone can now no longer save to an external memory. If I didn't know any better, one would think it was throwing a hissy fit.

Wasn't sure I could properly paint the details with the Ork Lootas fully assembled

It was really difficult to position the ork's left hand above the big shoota

Ork Trukk driver ... insists the other orks call him Takumi-san

Ork Trukk was a real blast to assemble. Really had fun with it. Still missing the boarding planks that I plan to attach later

There are 10 Ork boyz and 3 Deffkoptas still in their undercoats awaiting further paints

Being able to get my hands on one of the cheaper macro lenses on the market (i.e. the Tamron macro lens) also allowed me to mess around with some close-up shots and do the below mini-tutorial on How To Paint Ork Skin (Version 1).

Basecoat of Orkhide Shade was painted over the Chaos Black undercoat and given a wash of Devlan Mud

A mid-tone of Knorloc Green was painted on the raised areas leaving some Orkhide Shade showing on the recesses

A highlight layer of 1:1 Knarloc Green : Goblin Green was painted leaving some of the mid-tone layer showing

Extreme higlights were painted on the upper-most raised areas using a 1:1:1 mix of Knarloc Green:Goblin Green:Bleached Bone

Finished with a wash of Thraka Green
I haven't gotten around to using the new Citadel Paints yet. Was thinking to do that on a brand new Hobbit project that I am contemplating.
On the whole, it might not seem like a whole lot of progress. But slowly and surely, the ork army
is starting to gain some momentum. It’s going to be tough trying to squeeze in some Chaos army
miniatures to the hobby timetable but priority has been set to building my son’s army.

If they ever make a Hollywood version of a Warhammer 40K movie, maybe they should hire Haley
Joel Osment to be an Imperial Guard with a line that goes “I see dead orks”. Cringe … ouch … lame I know … heh heh. =) =P

As always, I truly appreciate the support and comments. I leave you with a macro shot I was able to take while messing around with the Tamron lens.

Franky of One Piece fame

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